Virgins are like the fair flow'r

General information

Text by John Gay for wedding to an adapted air in the Beggar's Opera

Settings by composers

Johann Christoph Pepusch SSB and TTB Samuel Webbe Jr. STB

Text and translations

English text

Virgins are like the fair flow'r in its lustre
Which in the garden enamels the ground;
Near it the bees in play flutter and cluster,
And gaudy butterflies frolic around.
But when once plucked, 'tis no longer alluring,
To Covent Garden is sent as yet sweet;
There fades and droops and grows past all enduring,
Shrinks, rots and dies and is trod under feet.